Time and Place

TIME AND PLACE, 2014

Runtime – 99mins

When scientists reveal the universe has stopped expanding, and will soon begin to contract, time collapses for one man. Things lose their meaning, and moral boundaries seem absurd. ‘TIME AND PLACE’ is a low-budget epic in which one man has to come to terms with the consequences of his actions, knowing that some day all that surrounds him will cease to exist.

*Winner of Special Jury Prize Narrative Film 2015 – Barcelona Film Festival El Rey Awards

WHAT IS “THE BIG CRUNCH”?

The Big Crunch is one of the scenarios predicted by scientists in which the Universe may end. Just like many others, it is based on Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. That is, if the Big Bang describes how the Universe most possibly began, the Big Crunch describes how it will end as a consequence of that beginning. It tells us that the Universe’s expansion, which is due to the Big Bang, will not continue forever. Instead, at a certain point in time, it will stop expanding and collapse into itself, pulling everything with it until it eventually turns into the biggest black hole ever. We all know how everything is squeezed when in that hole; hence the name Big Crunch. For scientists to predict with certainty the possibility of a Big Crunch, they will have to determine certain properties of the Universe. One of them is its density. It is believed that if the density is larger than a certain value, known as the critical density, an eventual collapse is highly possible.

When considering the idea that the universe, and time itself, could quite possibly stop and begin to contract, sending us back from the present, into the past and make us relive every moment backwards, it offers up the question – ‘What would you do if you knew there would be no consequences to your actions?’ If you start at point A, and point C is where things begin to go backwards, when you return from point C to point B in the timeline of your life, the events at point C technically no longer exist, and therefore the consequences of your actions at points A and B no long exist either. This is the central focus of the film.